Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You Think
Author: Hans Rosling
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Publication Date: April 3, 2018
Length: 341 pages
About the Author
Hans Rosling was a medical doctor, professor of international health and renowned public educator. Mr. Rosling died in 2017, having devoted the last years of his life to writing Factfulness.
"We are on the cusp of immense possibilities".
Hans Rosling believes that we are, historically speaking, at the best possible time in human history.
Mr. Rosling bases his claims on publicly available data compiled by organizations like the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, and the World Bank.
Many people think the world is divided into two types of countries: developed and developing. This approach of dividing the world into two categories is now outdated and fundamentally wrong. It blindly labels countries as rich and poor and this leads to people making some poor assumptions about the problems the rest of the world may be facing.
There are about seven billion people living in the world today. The author divided the world into the following four levels of income;
- Level 1: Average income per person is about $1 per day. Roughly 1 billion people in the world live like this today.
- Level 2: Average income per person is about $4 per day. About 3 billion people in the world fall into this category.
- Level 3: Average income per person is about $16 per day. About 2 billion people in the world are in this situation.
- Level 4: Average income per day is about $64 per day. About 1 billion people in the world fall in this category.
A vast majority of the world's population is spread out across Levels 2 and 3. This is a much more accurate way to look at the world than the popular "we" vs. "them" narrative.
My Thoughts
I learned about this book on Bill Gates' blog and decided to put in a request for this selection at my public library. I waited several months for the opportunity to read this book but found it well worth the wait.
I believe this book is extremely interesting and informative. Mr. Rosling provides many charts and graphs that illustrate the data he has collected about the living conditions of people around the world. In terms of health, nutrition, income, vaccination, sanitation, and many other parameters, the world is in much better shape than ever before.
I agree with the author that the selective reporting of "bad news" in the media has led us into an extremely negative mindset. Unfortunately, the media does not highlight the positive aspects adequately and we end up suffering from an irrational fear that the world is becoming increasingly dangerous. Our journalists need to develop a less dramatic and more fact-based method of reporting world events.
This book is not attempting to provide us with an unrealistically glowing vision of the world. Instead, it uses facts and hard data to show us that although there are serious problems in the world, we are still much better off than many of us imagine.
Bill Gates described this book as "one of the most important books I have ever read...an indispensable guide to thinking clearly about the world". This book was a real eye-opener for me. Highly recommended!
MY RATING: 5 STARS OUT OF 5
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